'Russia Wants Us to Freeze' Says Ukraine PM Yatsenyuk

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has accused Russia of using natural gas as a weapon in an attempt to freeze Ukraine in the coming winter.

Yatsenyuk told Reuters news agency that Moscow would use energy as a weapon in a bid to extract concessions from its neighbour.

"They want us to freeze. This is the aim and this is another trump card in Russian hands. So, except military offence, except military operation against Ukraine, they have another trump card, which is energy," Yatsenyuk told Reuters at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

"The ultimate goal of Russia is to organise, to orchestrate another frozen conflict in Ukraine," he added.

Russian state energy firm Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in July after Kiev and Moscow were unable to resolve a long-running dispute over gas prices.

Gazprom almost doubled the price it charged Ukraine for gas in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea in March. Kiev refused to pay the inflated price, describing it as "political."

Ukraine has since relied on a combination of its own supplies in storage and gas imported from other European countries but Kiev and Brussels have expressed concerns that Ukraine may run out of gas in the as consumption rises in the winter months.

Indeed, Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak warned EU countries against re-exporting gas to Ukraine in an interview with a German newspaper.

"The contracts signed [between Russia and EU clients] do not have any provisions for re-exports... We hope that our European partners respect the past agreements. That is the only way to guarantee uninterrupted supplies," he said, as quoted by the Handelsblatt newspaper.

Officials from Ukraine, Russia and the European Union are due to hold talks on Friday in Berlin, as the three parties seek to resolve the long-running gas dispute.